Overseas operations boost IG

9th Sep 2009 07:23

Strong overseas growth helped spread better IG Group lift revenue by 28% in its first quarter to £68m from £53m. Excluding the impact of FXOnline Japan KK, organic revenue growth was 17%, IG added, while the charge for doubtful debts in the period was less than 1% of revenue.London office revenue increased by 4% to just over £39m. Australian revenue was up by over 50% to £10m while the group's six newer offices in mainland Europe, Singapore and the US increased revenue by around 80% to over £11m. Germany and France in particular delivered strong growth, IG said.It opened over 21,000 financial accounts in the three months, an increase of 72% on the number opened in the corresponding period of the prior year. Excluding FXOnline, the like-for-like increase was 23%, driven principally by increases in the rate of account opening in the UK and Australia.'The new financial year has started well, despite subdued forex and equity market volatility. The normal seasonality impact in the northern hemisphere was somewhat offset by clients' increased trading activity in shares during the strong rally in equity markets over the final seven weeks of the period,' IG said, though it added it faces more challenging comparatives in the second quarter.